Philadelphia Flyers Site Online:

AJ McLean’s Online Journal Entry:

December 4,2001

Hmmm have any of you ever had one of those slurpees from 7-11 that have the three different sections for three different flavors? I’m having one of them right now as I sit here writing this and I have come to the conclusion that this might possibly be 7-11’s best contribution to the world, as I know it. I mean I have a little coke flavored for an appetizer then some cherry for a main course and finally some lemon for a nice desert. Of course people keep telling me to gain weight so maybe I should get a fourth in there somewhere.

Anyway the people here at the Flyers family think it would be a good idea if the team started this online journal thingy. I’ll mostly be writing in it I bet, but the other guys are welcome to do it too. Nick will probably drop around once and a while with the other younger guys. Hey I’ll try my best to get Kevin to do some too and JR.

Anywhoo we’re playing the Islanders tonight, the dreaded first place team. How the hell that happened I’ll never know. So we’re going to be playing them tonight. The bad news, Bruno St. Jacques moved back down to the Phantoms. He was doing really well too. The good news, Boosh will be back soon he’s starting in practice already and Richardson, Luke that is, will be back soon too. Hopefully we’ll get back on our feet tonight.

Hey everyone I want to thank you all for your concern about me being sick a while ago too. Thank you all for sending cards and other little trinkets. Oh yeah you can also send in questions for me in now for me to answer. The site is going to have one of them for every player and I’m first, lucky me. So ask some good ones please. No more, “Well what’s your favorite color?”.

Well I better get going we still have to warm up before we play tonight, which is in about an hour. Hope to see you at the games if you’re coming to any and keep up with the great support.

Nick pulls on his skate and ties it quickly as he looks over at AJ who is finishing taping up his right ankle. Brian was sitting on his chair waiting to go out dressed in his gear already. Tonight was a big game for them. The Islanders were the leaders in their division to many peoples’ astonishment. None the less they were still the team to beat and the team had to go out there and give it their all. If they didn’t…Barber would crucify them all.

As soon as they hit the ice they start warming up and take some shots on Brian before they are waved back to the bench to sit down and get ready for the game to begin. LeClaire, Recchi and AJ were the first line out then Gagne, Roenick and Williams then Nick, Fedetenko and Dopita and finally Havlac, Murray and Weinrich. Kevin was in the back starting out with Kim Johnson and Brian was in net.

The game was off with a bang to say the least. The team hadn’t been taking much body, but they were making up for it now. The Islanders got the first goal though as Brian tries to make a diving save only to have it hit in anyway. The Flyers answered it in the second with one of their own though as Roenick wails one into the get over Osgood’s shoulder off a pass from Gagne. Minutes later a second was scored by Gagne. For once they were actually in the lead…well for a matter of about three minutes until an Islander takes off down the ice faking out Brian and sends the puck into the net as Brian tries to save it diving across the ice to no avail.

It was a tie going into the third and AJ had once again come to the conclusion that the teams just did not like Williams as he is hit not once, not twice, but three times in the face with a high stick. By now even Williams was beginning to believe AJ.

“What the hell is this?” AJ asks from the bench before the third period starts.

“What?” Nick asks.

“What the hell kind of stadium plays “Dirty Pop”? No one came here to get down with their dirty pop self,” he says.

“You feel one coming on then AJ?” Recchi asks.

“Of course,” AJ smiles taking off for his position on the ice.

And AJ was right. A few minutes into the third on a power play for the Flyers he splits the Islander defense and takes off down the ice shooting on net and sailing it over Osgood’s shoulder. They were winning 3-2 now. It was their first power play goal in God knows how long. They were finally coming together as a team now.

And that was how it ended 3-2 in favor of the Flyers. Their defense had kept the Islanders down at only twenty some shots while they fired off forty plus at Osgood. They had won the game and won it well. Thank God the week of hell was over now.

Kevin looks around his house and sighs. He was extremely glad they had off today before they played the Islanders again on Thursday night. They had earned the day off thanks to the fact that they had won the game against the Islanders the other night. The next game was on home ice too and he was looking forward to playing in front of the Philadelphia fans again.

“Hun have you been on line lately?” Kristin asks walking into the living room where Kevin is stretched out on the couch.

“No why? What did Barber do now?”

“No it’s not him.”

“What did Clarke do then?”

“No…no…you’re one of the top votes for the All Star game of defense men. AJ is one of the top ones in offense with Gagne and LeClaire too.”

“Are you serious?” Kevin says.

“Yes I swear,” she smiles, “According to people at the Spectrum Boosh is getting a lot of write in votes for goalie too. So you’re gonna have the Olympics and this now probably.”

“As long as the knee holds up,” Kevin says.

“Don’t worry you’ll be fine,” Kristin says, “How’s Brian?”

Kevin sighs, “I’m not sure. He’s so hard on himself some times and I don’t think he performed as well as he wanted too in Boosh’s absence. I don’t think Boosh has anything to worry about right now and he knows it too. Brian hasn’t done anything to take the starting position away from him.”

“You think Brian will be ok?”

“I hope. I can’t put up with all these attacks he keeps having whenever he plays bad or loses even if he didn’t play bad. I swear sophomore slumps only hit goalies.”

“How are you holding up?”

“Pretty good. I wish I were home more often though. I miss you and the kids.”

She smiles, “They can’t wait to see you play again tomorrow night. They like it better being in a box then watching it on TV.”

“Who doesn’t,” Kevin says.

“Ethan wants to know when he can go in the locker room again?”

“I’ll have to check with Barber on that. He’s been wanting us to concentrate more and Ethan won’t help concentration in there at all. Last time he taped Williams to the pole in the center of the room with AJ and AJ’s tape. It’s a big enough job watching AJ without Ethan.”

“When will we get the Christmas tree then?”

“Whenever we have time to is good for me. I still have to put up the lights right? I’ll do that later today then, which means…”

“We better go get the ladder.”

“I hate going up into the attic,” Kevin mutters.

Of course he was mostly praying that the stand for the Christmas tree would keep it up this year instead of falling over twice like it did last year. And as usual he prayed to God that the cat wouldn’t have the urge to climb, bite or scratch on the tree this year. Of course Kevin never seemed to have much luck with anything…except hockey.

“It just takes some time. Little girl you blah blah blah,” AJ sings running on the treadmill, “What I don’t know all the words ok,” he says looking at Nick who is staring at him oddly, “Everything everything will be just fine. Everything everything will be just right,” he continues singing, “Hey don’t write yourself off yet. It’s only in your head you feel left out…”

“Feel left out,” Boosh echos flipping through a magazine as he sits by the ping-pong table.

“And looked down on. Just do your best.”

“Just do your best.” Boosh echos.

“Do everything you can.”

“Do everything you can.”

“And don’t worry about what the bitter hearts are going to say,” AJ says as Boosh joins in, “It just takes some time. Little girl you….Everything everything will be just fine. Everything everything will be all right. All right. It just takes some time. Little girl you….Everything everything will be just fine. Everything everything will be all right,” they finish as AJ slows down the treadmill and jumps off walking over to the table and sitting down next to Boosh.

“Having fun?” Nick asks.

AJ shrugs as he takes a swing of his water bottle.

“I really don’t understand why you people work so much on your off days,” Fedoruk says walking into the room. And shakes his head as he looks over at Williams who is still running on a treadmill, “What is he up to now?”

“Three miles and running by now,” Nick says.

“That’s sickening,” Fedoruk says sitting down at the table with them.

“So what’s the news about Guerin?” AJ asks Fedoruk.

“He just reportedly turned down a 6 million plus deal with the Bruins,” he says shaking his head, “He’s gonna be a free agent soon.”

AJ shakes his head and takes another swing on his water bottle. Billy Guerin was an offensive player for the Bruins and so far had earned MVP with the Devils along with the Stanley Cup and MVP with the USA team. Of course now he was a free agent and the Flyers along about two other teams were showing interest in him. Of course this trade meant a lot of money would be going up for Guerin along with a number probable trades for him. The most rumored of them were Havlac and Williams. AJ thought all of it was ridiculous they didn’t need any more offense what they needed was defense maybe, but with Boosh coming back he didn’t think they needed that either. Barber was screwing with the lines enough as it is without a new player to shove in there.

“I think they should just fire Clarke,” AJ says as the others stare at him, “What they should. We’ve had a twenty something year drought with him as GM. The only reason we have Hitler as our coach now is because Clarke played with him. Personally I hate them both right about now. I’ve had to deal with the man in minors and now I have to deal with him as pro. All I have to say about that is blah,” AJ says making a face.

“At least you’re playing,” Fedoruk says, “He’s scratched me for the past two games lousy bastard.”

“Well you know how I felt last year then,” Williams says walking over and wiping his face with a towel.

“Williams you just turned twenty in October shut up you have a long time ahead of yourself,” Boosh says, “A NHL rookie at eighteen…geez,” he says shaking his head.

AJ shakes his head and walks over to the radio in the gym opening the CD player and putting a CD in it from the stack of them on the top of it.

“AJ’s the hot shot not me,” Williams says as AJ bounds back over bouncing his head along to the Foo Fighters “The One” song.

AJ shrugs, “I can’t help that I’m loved. Anyway Gags has been doing as good as me for the past few games anyway.”

“Yeah where is Gagne?” Nick asks.

“Who knows with those frenchies,” AJ says smirking at Williams who glares at him slightly.

“Ok so what are we doing about Christmas?” Nick asks.

“What do you mean?” AJ asks.

“Like do we buy things for all the guys on the team?”

AJ shrugs and looks at Boosh along with everyone else.

“Why do you all look at me?” Boosh asks.

“You’ve been here the longest,” Williams says.

“Yeah one more year then you which brings my grand total to three.”

“I think we should get something for everyone,” AJ says.

“This coming from the guy who likes to shop,” Fedoruk says rolling his eyes.

“Is there something wrong with that?” AJ asks.

“Yeah when you have more shoes then a girl usually does there is,” Nick adds.

AJ pouts and folds his arms across his chest, “Fine be that way see what I get you.”

“It’s too warm out to be December,” Williams says, “By now we should have snow. But I’m not very fond of shopping guys. I mean I don’t even know what to get my family yet.”

“Get your dad the Godfather DVD set,” AJ says.

“Why would I do that?”

“Every guy loves the Godfather.”

“Yeah every Italian guy,” Boosh says.

“Shut up Boosh,” AJ says.

“I think we should get something for everyone,” Fedoruk says.

“Alright,” Nick sighs, “That’s mean I gotta go out to the mall then and that’s an adventure in itself. Last time Justin and I went out we spent fifteen minutes alone trying to convince this girl that he wasn’t JASON Williams.”

Justin shakes his head looks down, “I lead a sad sad life.”

“That you do,” AJ says standing up, “I call dibs on getting Kevin a Hooters shirt,” he says as the others groan. Now they actually had to think of something.

Nick stares around the store and begins to wonder why the Victoria’s Secret Beauty Store was so unusually bright. He was also beginning to wonder how much longer Justin would take trying to decide on which perfume to get a girl he liked. Nick just wanted to leave Justin spent far too much time debating on which smelled better Divine or Pink. Nick told him that he was going to affect his sense of smell permanently if he just didn’t decide soon after all it was only the first store they had been to and they still needed to look for gifts for everyone else.

Nick wasn’t really sure of the time when he finally started to realize that Justin was having as hard a time as he was himself and just dropped the competition that he had with him. It was easier to just get along with him since he had known him the longest out of everyone and he was closest to his age. So now where they were walking around the mall shopping for Christmas presents on their day off.

“Are you done yet?” Nick asks Justin.

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Justin says walking up carrying a pink bag.

“That is so wrong,” Nick says looking down at it.

“I know I wanna go buy something big, so I can put this in the bag with it,” he says walking out of the store and adjusting the hat on his head.

“What are you getting for the guys?”

“I dunno. AJ’s the easiest the guy will appreciate anything I think.”

Nick nods because he was right AJ seemed to be amazed by the littlest things.

“You still fighting with your dad?” Justin asks not looking at him.

“Yeah,” Nick sighs, “It’s not so bad now because he isn’t down here ya know. When we played on the Whalers it was bad because he was just always there.”

“Honestly he scared the hell out of me Nick. I just remember having this feeling like he wanted to kill me because I took your spot. I hated it when I could see him when I was on the ice.”

Nick looks down as they walk and sighs, “I know the feeling. Trust me I know. I just remember him getting so mad at times because I wasn’t playing to my full ability. If I didn’t make Varsity freshmen year I would be grounded for the winter season. That always sticks out in my mind. That and the times he would make me skate and do drills out on the pond in our back yard. And the times he would throw my gear across my room at me whenever I didn’t play well.”

Justin shakes his head.

“Don’t worry about it though,” Nick says, “It’s alright now. No more drama in my life for now.”

“What are you talking about?” Justin smirks, “You’re on a NHL team. Drama is around every time we touch the ice.”

Nick nods, “I know that. Trust me I know that. So tell me Justin was it Pink or Divine in the end.”

“Errr,” Justin makes a face, “I just got both.”

“You’re whipped already,” Nick sighs.

“Shut up,” Justin snaps.

Sometimes it was just better to put the past behind you and Nick knew it.

Twenty-Two

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